Roy, Arundhati

▪ 1999

      In 1998 Indian author Arundhati Roy rocked the literary world with her Booker Prize-winning debut novel, The God of Small Things, which was released in paperback and quickly climbed the charts. Published in 1997 to critical acclaim, the semiautobiographical work departed from the conventional plots and light prose that were typical among best-sellers. Writing in a lyrical language about South Asian themes and characters in a narrative that wandered through time, Roy proved to the publishing industry that readers were willing to be challenged. The biggest-selling book by a nonexpatriate Indian author, Roy's novel heralded the arrival of a promising and uncompromising new voice.

      Born in 1961 in Bengal, India, Arundhati Roy was raised in Kerala. Her father was a tea planter, and her mother would later help alter India's inheritance laws by successfully suing for Christian women to receive an equal share of their fathers' estates. Though trained as an architect, Roy had little interest in design, but dreamed instead of a writing career. After a series of odd jobs, including artist and aerobics instructor, she wrote and costarred in the film In Which Annie Gives It To Those Ones and later penned scripts for the film Electric Moon (1992) and several television dramas. The films earned Roy a devoted following, but her literary career was interrupted by controversy. In 1995 she wrote two newspaper articles claiming that Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen exploited Phoolan Devi, one of India's most wanted criminals in the early 1980s and heroine of the oppressed. The columns caused an uproar, including a court case, and Roy retreated from the public and returned to the novel she had begun to write.

      In the works for more than four years, The God of Small Things vividly depicted a family's tragedy. Following fraternal twins Estha and Rahel, it explored jealousies, social prejudices, and forbidden love. Though the novel was an instant sensation, some critics panned it. Within five months of release, more than 350,000 copies had been sold worldwide; the book would eventually appear in 30 countries and 24 languages. It won the Booker in 1997, making Roy the first Indian woman to receive the honour. Controversy, however, continued to dog her, as some critics in India charged that passages in the novel dealing with sex were obscene. Though Roy stated that she might never write another book, her legions of fans clearly hoped otherwise.

AMY TIKKANEN

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